{Guide to Assessment Validation for the Education Providers across Australia's training sector A Reliable Guide

{Guide to Assessment Validation for the Education Providers across Australia's training sector A Reliable Guide

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Overview of Assessment Validation

Registered Training Organisations have multiple responsibilities post-registration, including yearly declarations, AVETMISS reporting, and marketing compliance. Among these tasks, assessment validation is particularly challenging. While validation has been covered in multiple articles, a review of the basics is necessary. The Australian Skills Quality Authority identifies assessment review as granular review of the assessment process.

Primarily, assessment review is concerned with identifying which parts of an RTO’s assessment methods are effective and which need improvement. With a proper grasp of its key aspects, validation becomes less daunting. According to Clause 1.8 of the SRTOs 2015 regulations, RTOs must ensure their assessment systems, including RPL, adhere to the training package requirements and are conducted according to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.

The rules specify two types of validation. The initial type of assessment review checks conformity with the requirements of the training package within your RTO's scope. The other type ensures that assessments are conducted according to the principles of assessment and rules of evidence. This implies that validation is carried out both before and after the assessment. This article will focus on the initial type—assessment tool validation.

What are the Two Types of Assessment Validation?

- Assessment Tool Validation: Commonly called pre-assessment validation or verification, relates to the first part of the regulation, aimed at ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Concerns the conduct, verifying that RTOs conduct assessments according to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.

Conducting Validation of Assessment Tools

Timing for Assessment Tool Validation

The goal of validating assessment tools is to make sure that all components, criteria for performance, and evidence of performance and knowledge are included by your assessment tools. Therefore, whenever you purchase new educational resources, you must perform assessment tool validation prior to student use. There's no need to wait for your next scheduled validation. Validate new tools as soon as possible to verify they are suitable for student use.

Nevertheless, this isn't the only time to perform this type of validation. Perform assessment tool validation also when you:

- Modify your resources
- Include new training products on scope
- Compare your course with training product updates
- Identify potential risks in your learning resources during your risk assessment

The Australian Skills Quality Authority employs a risk-based approach for regulating RTOs and expects regular risk assessments. Therefore, student complaints about learning resources are an ideal time to conduct assessment tool validation.

What Training Products Need Validation?

Remember that this validation ensures compliance of all educational resources before use. All RTOs must validate resources for each course unit.

Resources Required for Assessment Tool Validation

To validate your evaluation tools, you will need the complete set of your learning resources:

- Mapping Tool: The first document to review. It shows which assessment tasks meet unit requirements, aiding in faster validation.
- Learner Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment resource during validation. Check if click here guidelines are clear and answer fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide: Also verify if instructions for assessors are sufficient and if clear criteria for each assessment task are provided. Clear criteria are crucial for reliable assessment results.
- Other Related Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, logs, and templates developed separately from the student workbook and assessor guide. Validate these to ensure they suit the assessment task and meet course unit requirements.

Validation Panel

Regulation 1.11 specifies the requirements for members of the validation panel. It states validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually ask all trainers and assessors to participate, sometimes including sector experts.

Collectively, your validation panel must have:

- Workplace Competencies and Up-to-date Industry Skills relevant to the unit under validation.
- Updated Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Teaching and Learning.
- Either of the following training and assessment credentials:
- TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment or its successor.

Assessment Principles

- Equity: Is equal opportunity and access provided to everyone in the assessment process?
- Flexibility: Does the assessment offer various options to demonstrate competence based on different needs and preferences?
- Relevance: Is the assessment relevant to the skills and knowledge it aims to evaluate?
- Dependability: Will different assessors make the same decision on skill competence?

Evidence Rules

- Validity: Does the evidence demonstrate that the candidate has the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency and associated assessment requirements?
- Adequacy: Is the evidence sufficient to cover all the required skills and knowledge?
- Genuineness: Does the assessment tool verify that the work is the candidate’s own?
- Relevance: Is the evidence up-to-date with current industry practices?

Important Factors in Assessment Validation

Pay attention to the tasks in the unit criteria and ensure they are addressed by the assessment item. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers, one performance criteria asks students to:

- Change nappies
- Prepare and feed bottles, clean feeding equipment
- Prepare solid food and feed babies
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Prepare and settle babies for sleep
- Supervise and support age-appropriate physical activities and motor development

Typical Mistakes

Asking students to describe the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months old does not meet the unit requirement. Unless the unit criteria is meant to evaluate underlying knowledge (i.e., evidence of knowledge), students should be doing the tasks.

Mind the Plurals!

Pay attention to the quantities. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 requires the students to complete the tasks at least once on two different babies under 12 months of age. Having students complete the tasks listed twice on just one baby is not sufficient.

All or Not Competent

Pay attention to lists. As mentioned earlier, if students perform only half the tasks listed, it’s out of compliance. Each assessment item must address all specifications, or the student is incompetent, and the assessment method is non-compliant.

Can You Be More Specific?

Each assessment item must have clear and specific benchmark answers to guide the evaluator’s decision on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your guidelines do not baffle students or evaluators.

Steer Clear of Double-Barrelled Questions

Steering clear of double-barrelled questions makes it easier for students to respond and for trainers to accurately assess student competence.

Audit Guarantees

Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Don’t learning resource developers offer audit guarantees?” However, with these promises, you must wait for an audit before they assist with noncompliance. This impacts your compliance record, so it's better to take a safe and compliant approach.

By following these recommendations and understanding the principles of assessment and Rules of Evidence, you can ensure that your assessment methods are valid with the standards established by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.